---

Planning Bill

My Lords, I add my support to the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, and the sentiment behind them. When faced with large projects, the reality is invariably that the pressure seems to be behind those who wish to carry the project forward. It is almost by definition that once it has got that far, there is an enormously strong momentum. In those circumstances, the perennial tendency is for those things that cannot be reduced to figures in some sophisticated and more or less completely incomprehensible cost-benefit analysis to get swept to one side. As the noble Lord said, what is proposed is entirely in line with the proposed Heritage Protection Bill, and it would be inconsistent for the Government not to include it here.